Unique childhood literacy program at risk of closing

The pandemic and inflation have delivered a one-two punch to many states’ economies throughout the nation. Now childhood literacy advocates say the destructive duo could knock out a program that is feeding the educational dreams of local kids.

Kids Ferst of Gilmer County, which distributes more than 1,000 books a month to local preschool children (ages 0-5), is facing an increase in book costs and drops in giving that have been partially fueled by the COVID pandemic. The Ferst Readers program, so named after its founder, Robin Ferst, is headquartered in Madison, Ga., and operates in around a dozen states. In Georgia, the innovative and broad-reaching program is in 98 of 159 counties, or 61 percent coverage statewide.

Galen Forbes, president of Kids Ferst in Gilmer, likened the endeavor to a celebrity-gilded effort in Tennessee.

“Everybody in the country, or at least the southeast, is familiar with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library, it’s an absolutely wonderful program — and we are the Georgia version of that program,” she said. “We do exactly the same thing, with the exception of funding. Their funding is virtually unlimited, it’s Dollywood and the State of Tennessee. We don’t have that option, we are totally dependent on private donations from individuals and companies. We do get some grants, and we are thankful for every dollar we get — we’re just not getting enough of them right now.”

Half of Imagination Library funding in Tennessee is from state government, according to online sources.

Local Kids Ferst board members recently sat down with a Times-Courier reporter and detailed the issue with funding and its potential impact on outreach. Josh Chancey, who works on procuring grants, said the program began in 2007 has expanded each year.

“We’ve been able to grow it to where we’re sending over 1,000 books a month to children in the community, and we have just crossed over sending our 200,000th book since its inception,” he said. “Quite frankly, it’s a good program that a lot of people have benefited from over the years, because kids that are taught to read early and often are typically set up for success when they go to pre-K or kindergarten, versus kids who haven’t.”

Chancey said a nationwide problem has also hampered Kids Ferst.

“Inflation is what has really hurt us terribly,” he revealed. “Eighteen months ago we were paying around $3 a book … and now it’s gone up 50 cents per book. Overall, the increase of book prices has gone up 33.5 percent since the program’s inception. The increase in 2023 amounted to $500 extra a month.”

That’s on top of $3,500 needed each month — provided through local individuals, businesses and grants — to buy those 1,000-plus books, board members noted.

‘They can immediately tell’

Vice President Emil Harvey noted the pandemic “is what really set us back.”

“We can’t go out and recruit children like we used to, like seeing them with their parents at Walmart. We can’t go out and get money — we were kinda like a vegetable there for those two years, we really took a beating,” he said. “And just recently, they upped the price on us, a 50 cent per book increase.”

Typically, children are recruited through their parents or guardians to get the appropriate-age books.

“We get such good reports back from both the parents and the teachers,” Harvey said. “Teachers continually tell us — especially in kindergarten and first grade — that they can immediately tell the children getting our books for those four or five years before they come to school. They know which side of the book is up, and they know how to turn pages.”

Harvey pointed out, “We’re not trying to teach these children how to read.”

“We’re trying to develop a love for books, and especially a bond between whoever their parent or guardian is,” he explained. “Getting them to read to their children — science has found — from (age) 0 to 5 is formative because their brain is like a great big sponge. If you read to them every day, it’s astronomical how their vocabulary develops. On the other hand, when you start out behind, you never catch up. By third grade if you’re not reading to level (proficiency), your chances of catching up are almost nil.”

Best case, worst case

Forbes was asked about a best-case, worst-case scenario.

“People being willing to give back to the community, to help our own within our county,” she said of the former case. “We have so many good-hearted people here, including all the people who have moved in. I believe people … are willing to help if they know there’s a need. And we have a need. The worst case is we may actually have to close our program. But if we can’t afford the books, we can’t afford the books.”

Chancey added optimistically, “There are a lot of people in the community who need tax help; we are a registered nonprofit so it would be a deductible contribution to them if they wanted to utilize that. That would help sustain us.”

“Gilmer County is such a great place for supporting organizations — local businesses, thrift stores, an annual car show and individuals have supported Ferst Books in the past,” said Harvey. “If you can go three or four years and prove that you are a real asset, they support you. And they’ve always supported us, we’ve been blessed. But the pandemic hurt us. It’s too good a program to die, and I believe if it did it would be the children who suffer in their education.”

Why books in the home?

   1.  The number of books in the home correlates significantly with higher reading scores for children.

   2.  61 percent of low-income families have no books at all in their homes for their children. Children from lower-income homes have limited access to books. Because of this, there are fewer home and preschool language and literacy opportunities for preschoolers from low-income families than for children from economically advantaged backgrounds.

   3.  Children in low-income families lack essential one-on-one reading time, whereas on average, children who grow up in middle-class families have been exposed to 1,000 to 1,700 hours of one-on-one picture book reading (before entering school). The average child growing up in a low-income family, in contrast, has only been exposed to 25 hours of one-on-one reading.

Ferst Readers’ solution: Mail a new book at no cost to the participants’ homes or child care centers monthly.

Source: Ferst Readers

You can make a difference!

Giving opportunities (tax-deductible):

$42 – 12 months of books/resources for a child

$84 – provides books/resources for two children

$210 – books/resources for five children

$420 – 10 children get the resources they need

$___ – other amount

Contact/donation info:

Kids Ferst of Gilmer County

P.O. Box 105

Ellijay, GA 30540

Facebook page: Kids Ferst in Gilmer County

Josh Chancey, board member – 706-502-5895